Mittal Steel Share News

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Steel titan ArcelorMittal (MT) expects to sell a significant portion of its $10 billion in minority investments and joint ventures in order to shore up its balance sheet. Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal said that management is looking at $10 billion in assets and joint ventures on its balance sheet which could be sold off as a non-core assets in order to reduce net debt and protect its credit rating. "We expect that [a] significant portion of that would be crystallized," Mittal told analysts in a call. He declined to provide a specific dollar value for how much might be raised from the sale of non-core assets. Mittal, however, said there were a "few more [asset disposals] in the pipeline to be announced in the second quarter" and said that he expects net debt to fall below $22.5 billion by the end of June. -By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com